Jointly developed by Touring of Milan and Alfa Romeo in the Fifties, the Disco Volante (Italian for Flying Saucer) is one of the most dramatic shapes ever. That’s the outside done with, then.

From inside the open cockpit, the main impression is just how difficult it is to start. Based on the four-cylinder mechanics from an Alfa Romeo 1900 road car, the museum example is misbehaving. With no self-starter and a refusal to idle, it’s hard enough just keeping it going to appreciate the finer points of its design.

It’s also fairly raucous, with a harsh four-pot exhaust snarl and not a huge amount of performance from the 158bhp, 1,997cc lump, even if it is an aluminium block. The four-speed transmission has a strange offset layout and the central instruments, while big, are also a stretch to see, if they worked at all.

It’s not the best start to this amazing 1952 concept car, a collaboration between Alfa under chief engineer Orazio Satta and Carrozzeria Touring of Milan. While its basis is the steel monocoque 1900, this is a tubular spaceframe with a curvaceous wind tunnel-designed coachwork that spawned a generation of imitators.

On the track, you carry speed like a vintage car, but can take some risks as the narrow tyres slide predictably around. Light weight (1,620lb) makes this a chuckable if unrewarding car to drive, which is perhaps reflected in its only contemporary victory at the Gran Premio Supercortemaggiore, a race that deserves to be better recognised if only for its name.